4 ms·
It's not a question of whether you have a Chinese spouse; that's not correct, and that would be racist. It's a question of whether or not you or your spouse ha
by Kadin 8y ago
It's not a question of whether you have a Chinese spouse; that's not correct, and that would be racist.
It's a question of whether or not you or your spouse have ongoing relationships with Chinese nationals and could, as a result, be subject to influence by the Chinese government.
If you were married to someone who, say, had fled China and had no connection to anyone there, that's likely to be fine. If you're married to someone who has a whole extended family back in China and visits them four times a year, well, that's pretty obviously a potential vulnerability that's going to be considered as part of a background investigation.
It's not a question of ethnicity or race, it's a question of having avenues of influence by a foreign government.
- sneak 8y agoThat’s still just a matter of race, so long as Americans and Chinese people are not entirely free to go live and work in either country without restriction. It’s just a proxy for race. If you are born in a China, of course your extended family is going to be under the control of the Chinese government. Same for Americans in America. Don’t get it twisted. It’s just racism.
- d4mi3n 8y agoI understand your issue with the policy, and I think this is a fine stance to take in cases where relations between two countries are good. Sadly, that is not the case between the US and China. Focusing on race here completely ignores the geopolitical situation. This issue is also completely moot in any case where the influence of a foreign power isn't a concern, as many others have mentioned. I'd also refute the idea that nationality is a proxy for race, especially for a country as large and diverse as China. China is _far_ from the only nation with an Asian populace--many of the ethnicities in China can be found in neighboring countries and across Asia.
- yourbandsucks 8y agoAccording to US census categories, Chinese are the same race as Indians, Pakistanis, Turkmen, Filipinos and Hawaiians. "Asian and Pacific islander". The residents of those various places, as I understand things, see it differently.
- yourbandsucks 8y agoI mean, that's a practical concern and I hear you, but it's still ethnic profiling. You're talking about judging people for having family. I feel like the reception would be different if we were talking about "woke-friendly" demographics.
- Macross8299 8y agoIs it ethnic profiling though? A thought experiment is to imagine a country nearly identical to the US in ethnic composition, culture, size, GDP, etc but is rivals with the US on the same level China is. If you were going to apply for a security clearance in the USA and your spouse and their family was from this rival bizarroUSA, I think you'd be subject to similar scrutiny. Just a question of where your (or your spouse's) national loyalties lie.
- yourbandsucks 8y agoOh, I totally get it. Well, sort of. I don't think China is the same level of rivalry that we had with the USSR. They're playing the game we asked and invited them to play. But that aside, I hear you. My major confusion is that I never see the woke crowd running in to get super sensitive about things like this when the topic is Chinese people. I feel like they'd lose their shit if we were talking about Arabs, for example.
- stevefan1999 8y agoSo you can't marry a Chinese American for he/she is both Chinese and American at the same time by your logic, or they should not even exist in the first hand?
- throwaway2048 8y agoNo, you can not marry like that _and expect a security clearance_. Security clearances aren't a human right.
- sneak 8y agoWhy is the state entitled to secrets from those from which it derives all of its powers and authority?